Decline and Renewal(2)

Term:
Spring 2010

Subject Code:
GPOL

Course Number:
5114

This course is an updated version of the course previously taught under the name "Historical Roots of a 'Fiasco': Iraq" It remains in essence a political, social and cultural history of the US since the 1970s centered on the weaknesses and failures of American liberalism and the political left in providing the opening for the Bush Presidency. The model for this approach is Marx's explanation (in his Eighteenth Brumaire) of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1851. Readings include both long term critiques of American liberalism, such as those by Richard Slotkin and Patricia Seed as well more focused studies of the post-1968 period by Richard Morris, Theda Skocpol, and Sean Wilentz.